Lady Panthers Drop Final Game of the Season

Saturday, March 06, 2010 11:17 PM

Alcorn, Miss.—In a high scoring back and forth affair the Lady Panthers dropped the final game of the season to Alcorn State, 72-66, Saturday afternoon at the Whitney Center.

Early turnover issues for the Lady Panthers gave Alcorn State the early edge in the contest forcing Prairie View into six turnovers during a four minute span. Alcorn capitalized on PVAMU’s mistakes as they jumped out to the early 12-4 advantage with 11:08 on the clock.

Dominique Smith who developed into PVAMU’s go to scorer got the Lady Panthers rolling as she scored six unanswered points cutting the lead to 12-10. The Lady Braves stayed composed throughout the run never allowing the Lady Panthers to reclaim control of the game throughout the majority of the first half.

However, with seven minutes to play in the first half the Lady Panthers found themselves still trailing by two and needed some sort of inspiration to get over the hill as they received just that from their fireplug Smith when she tied the ball game at 22 apiece. The Lady Braves refused to go away as they countered every Prairie View point with a point of their own with Amada Davidson rallying her troops throughout the contest.

The persistent Lady Panthers finally took the lead with Ciara Banks hitting a free throw which was then followed by Robin Jones connecting on a jumper from inside the paint that put the score to 28-25 at the 3:35 mark. Turnovers coming back to haunt Prairie View in the closing minutes of the half which ignited a 7-0 Lady Braves spurt to reclaim the lead 34-30 going into the half.  

The second half continued in similar fashion as both teams continued to go back and forth. With the up and down pace of the game ultimately one team would prevail and take control, as the Lady Braves made the first attempt using a 8-2 run to break away going up eight points with a layup from Sharneeka Breedlove.

With the game coming down to a chess match the Lady Panthers made a run of their own again cutting the deficit to two points but were unable to get over the hump this time around. Alcorn continued to push along as Crumbley caught fire giving the Lady Braves the final edge. Prairie View was unable to cut the deficit as they were forced to foul in the closing seconds of the game.

Dominique Smith led all scorers with 25 points, three assists, and one steal. Courtney Larsen followed with 14 points, four assists, and three steals. Ciara Banks contributed 11 points and pulled down 12 rebounds.